The approximately weeklong mission—which will take NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS and back—is intended to be Starliner’s final test flight before NASA certifies it for Commercial Crew rotation missions to the orbital laboratory. It would be the first crewed launch on ULA’s Atlas V rocket, which will send the spacecraft into orbit, and the first on the Atlas family of rockets in more than half a century.

An initial Starliner CFT launch attempt, scheduled for May 6, was scrubbed hours before takeoff due to an oscillating pressure regulation valve on the Atlas V’s upper stage. Boeing and NASA then pushed back the mission to May 10, later revising their timeline to Friday after successfully replacing the faulty valve.

Now, a new issue—involving the Starship capsule itself, rather than Atlas V—is holding up things.

NASA and Boeing on Tuesday said Starliner crews discovered a small helium leak on the spacecraft’s service module “traced to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster.”

The service module, which unlike Starliner’s crew module is expendable, is designed to power and maneuver the autonomous spacecraft. It is equipped with 28 reaction control system engines, designed by Boeing supplier Aerojet Rocketdyne, that generate 100 pounds of thrust each and stabilize the capsule in orbit. Helium allows the thrusters to fire and is neither toxic nor combustible.

Starliner teams are working to address the issue and conduct additional testing, resulting in the new target launch date of Tuesday.

“As a part of the testing, Boeing will bring the propulsion system up to flight pressurization just as it does prior to launch, and then allow the helium system to vent naturally to validate existing data and strengthen flight rationale,” the company said.

Boeing and NASA added that no further issues have arisen since the scrubbed launch on May 6.

Starliner successfully reached the ISS for the first and only time during an uncrewed test flight in 2022. But since Boeing unveiled the concept for the spacecraft in 2010, the program has been bogged down by delays. The CFT has been no exception.

NASA intends for Starliner to serve as a redundant alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule—which, like Starliner, was designed to ferry astronauts to low-Earth orbit destinations—in the case of a contingency, such as the one that stranded astronaut Frank Rubio in space for six months (and helped Rubio achieve a U.S. spaceflight record in the process). Crew Dragon has flown all eight Commercial Crew missions to date under a contract with the space agency agreed upon in 2014, which has since been extended.

NASA and Boeing have a similar contract, worth $4.2 billion, for six missions, the first of which could fly early next year if all goes according to plan Tuesday.

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The post Boeing, NASA Delay Starliner Again Due to New Issue appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

ValveTech, a manufacturer previously hired by Boeing supplier Aerojet Rocketdyne to build valves for Starliner’s propulsion system, is warning NASA to “immediately halt” the spacecraft’s first crewed launch, which may come as early as Friday.

The company—which sued Aerojet in 2017 alleging a violation of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and misuse of trade secrets—urged the space agency to “redouble safety checks and re-examine safety protocols” before the mission, which was scrubbed on May 6 due to a valve issue.

The faulty valve was located on United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket, which will launch Starliner into orbit. Tory Bruno, president and CEO of ULA, addressed ValveTech president Erin Faville’s comments directly in a post on social media platform X.

“Not sure what to say about this one,” Bruno wrote. “Close to none of it is correct: Not urgent. Not leaking. Etc. Remarkable that the particular person quoted doesn’t seem to know how this type of valve works…”

ValveTech says it supplies 14 valve components to Starliner vendors, but ULA tells FLYING it is not one of them. ValveTech did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment.

Starliner has been described by NASA as a redundant alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, which so far has flown eight Commercial Crew astronaut rotation missions to the International Space Station (ISS). Starliner, similarly, was designed as a reusable spacecraft to ferry astronauts to low-Earth orbit destinations.

The Starliner CFT, which had already been delayed several times, was scrubbed earlier this month due to an oscillating pressure regulation valve on the Atlas V rocket, forcing NASA to push back the launch to no earlier than Friday at 6:16 p.m. EDT.

Although NASA and ULA have already investigated and decided to remove and replace the valve, Faville warned against catastrophe should they attempt another launch.

“As a valued NASA partner and as valve experts, we strongly urge them not to attempt a second launch due to the risk of a disaster occurring on the launchpad,” said Faville. “According to media reports, a buzzing sound indicating the leaking valve was noticed by someone walking by the Starliner minutes before launch. This sound could indicate that the valve has passed its life cycle.”

NASA and ULA made no mention of a leaking valve in their assessments of the incident, saying only that the valve was oscillating abnormally.

“After evaluating the valve history, data signatures from the launch attempt, and assessing the risks relative to continued use, the ULA team determined the valve exceeded its qualification and mission managers agreed to remove and replace the valve,” NASA wrote in a blog post.

Faville later clarified that she is not calling for a permanent end to the Starliner program but rather a more thorough assessment of safety concerns.

“What I said was that NASA needs to redouble safety checks and re-examine safety protocols to make sure the Starliner is safe before trying to launch the Starliner again,” said Faville. “As a valued NASA partner, it would make no sense and not be in my company’s interest to end this mission.”

Since parting ways in 2017, ValveTech and Aerojet, a division of defense contractor L3Harris, have been tangled in a prolonged legal dispute. That year, ValveTech filed suit alleging that Aerojet breached NDAs and misused trade secrets in developing the flight valve for Starliner’s service module propulsion system.

In November, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York ruled that Aerojet had indeed breached two NDAs—awarding ValveTech $850,000 in damages—but had not misappropriated trade secrets.

According to Payload Space, the company sought further restrictions on Aerojet, but a judge closed the case on May 6.

In its statement regarding the May 6 launch scrub, ValveTech raised concerns about an earlier issue with one of Starliner’s valves. But the events appear to be unrelated.

In August 2021, Boeing scrubbed Starliner’s first uncrewed flight test due to a problem with the spacecraft’s service module propulsion system—the same system ValveTech alleges Aerojet built using trade secrets.

ValveTech alleges that “NASA, Boeing, and Aerojet…qualified this valve for [Starliner CFT] without proper supporting data or previous history or legacy information,” citing witness testimony from its November trial.

However, according to NASA and ULA, the incident on May 6 involved a pressure regulation valve on ULA’s Atlas V rocket—not the service module, which is on the Starliner capsule itself.

“The concerns raised by ValveTech in relation to the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission are not applicable to the pressure regulation valve with off nominal performance during the first launch attempt,” a ULA spokesperson told FLYING.

ValveTech and Faville’s comments appear unlikely to deter NASA and Boeing from attempting a second Starliner CFT launch as early as Friday.

The companies have a $4.2 billion contract that includes six Commercial Crew rotation missions to the ISS on an unspecified timeline. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon already fills that role for the space agency. But NASA hopes to put a second spacecraft in the rotation for redundancy in the case of a contingency.

Safety, of course, remains a priority for the space agency. But with the program now several years behind schedule and an estimated $1.5 billion over budget, stakeholders will be eager to see Starliner fly with a crew as soon as possible.

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The post ULA Pushes Back on Warning to NASA to Halt Boeing Starliner Launch appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The problem with the relief valve on the upper stage of the Atlas rocket was detected about two hours before the scheduled 10:34 p.m. EDT launch from Cape Canaveral.

“In a situation like this, if we see any data signature is not something that we have seen before, then we are just simply not willing to take any chances with what is our most precious payload,” United Launch Alliance spokesman Dillon Rice told reporters.

ULA is providing the rocket to boost the capsule into orbit for a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS).

* READ MORE: What to Know About Boeing Starliner’s First Crewed Test Flight 

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had just strapped in when the decision to scrub was made. It’s not known how long it will take to fix the valve.

It’s the latest in a series of issues encountered getting the Starliner to space, although this is the first issue with the launch system. The first uncrewed test launch of the capsule in 2019 failed to get to the right orbit for the ISS. The second test reached the space station, but after it returned problems were found with the parachutes and flammable tape was discovered in the electrical system.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

The post NASA Scrubs Starliner Crewed Flight Test Launch appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

According to NASA, launch of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket and Boeing Starliner spacecraft is targeted for 10:34 p.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

On Saturday, NASA said the weather looked promising for the event: “Launch weather officers with the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a 95 percent chance of favorable weather conditions at the launchpad for a liftoff….”

• READ MORE: What to Know About Boeing Starliner’s First Crewed Test Flight 

Following launch, the spacecraft is expected to dock to the forward-facing port of the ISS’ Harmony module shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday.

During the flight test, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will travel to the ISS for about a week, where they will test the Starliner spacecraft and its subsystems before NASA certifies the transportation system for rotational missions to the orbiting laboratory for the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, the space agency said.

Should the flight test be successful, rotations to the space outpost will begin with Starliner-1, scheduled for 2025.  

How to Watch

Coverage of the launch will begin at 6:30 p.m. on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and NASA’s website.

Following the 10:34 p.m. launch, NASA Television will provide continuous coverage until the spacecraft docks with the ISS, according to the space agency.

Where will you be when @BoeingSpace #Starliner launches?

Check out the @ULAlaunch visibility map to see if you will be in the historic launch's line of sight! If not, make sure to tune into our broadcast on May 6 at 6:30pm ET (2230 UTC): https://t.co/LDc8N1YYPO pic.twitter.com/Zx9jpvOi88

— NASA (@NASA) May 5, 2024

The post How to Watch Launch of Boeing Starliner’s First Crewed Flight Test appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) on Friday will attempt the 16th and final launch of its Delta IV Heavy rocket, one of the world’s most powerful—and expensive—commercially produced launch vehicles. The launch was initially scheduled for Thursday afternoon but was scrubbed a few minutes before takeoff.

The mission represents ULA’s 160th overall and the 45th and final flight for the Delta family of rockets as the manufacturer transitions to its Vulcan Centaur. Vulcan made its maiden voyage in January, carrying a Peregrine lunar lander for commercial customer Astrobotic.

“The Delta legacy will live on through Vulcan,” said Gary Wentz, vice president of government and commercial programs for ULA. “We also take this moment to celebrate the thousands of men and women who made the Delta program such a success over the decades. We carry their lessons and wisdom with us into the future.”

ULA is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. It produces the Delta and Atlas families of rockets, primarily for U.S. government use. Delta IV Heavy is the third-highest capacity launch vehicle in operation, behind NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy.

The Mission

Friday’s mission, NROL-70, is on behalf of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which develops and operates spy satellites to collect intelligence and support disaster relief and humanitarian efforts. NROL-70 is ULA’s 35th mission for the NRO and 99th for U.S. national security.

The mission’s payload is classified. But it is possibly intended to give the U.S. more eyes and ears in the stars, which could be used to listen into communications or radio transmissions, for example. Delta IV Heavy is the only rocket in the world that meets all of the requirements to perform the mission, according to ULA.

“The NROL-70 mission will strengthen the NRO’s ability to provide a wide range of timely intelligence information to national decision makers, warfighters, and intelligence analysts to protect the nation’s vital interests and support humanitarian efforts worldwide,” ULA said on its website.

The 235-foot-tall spacecraft will lift off from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral as early as 1:37 p.m. EDT Friday. On ascent, the rocket looks as if it is catching fire, but this is by design, as hydrogen gas used to cool it down before takeoff ignites and burns off. The process is mitigated by a staggered engine ignition, which reduces the amount of hydrogen burned.

First stage separation is expected to occur about five minutes into the mission, followed by the ignition of the main engine and jettisoning of the payload fairing. The spacecraft’s route and final destination are classified.

The Machine

Over six decades, Delta rockets have launched 388 times. About two-thirds of those launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the base for Friday’s mission. Delta IV rockets have successfully launched 44 times, carrying payloads on behalf of the NRO, NASA, Air Force, and Space Force.

Delta IV comes in three configurations: Medium+, with either two or four solid rocket motors, and Heavy. Each vehicle consists of a common booster core, upper stage, and payload fairing.

Delta IV Heavy features three common booster core tanks, which power a RS-68A engine system built by Aerojet Rocketdyne. RS-68A is the largest hydrogen-burning engine in existence, according to ULA. The engines burn cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, each delivering about 700,000 pounds of thrust at sea level.

Atop the booster is a Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS), or upper stage, which is also fueled by cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It is powered by a single RL10C-2-1 engine, also produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne, that produces nearly 25,000 pounds of thrust. The DCSS avionics system provides guidance and flight control for the booster.

Encapsulating the spacecraft is a payload fairing: a three-piece shell designed to shield cargo from the launch and ascent. The payload fairing can be installed off pad, improving safety and minimizing the use of launch facilities.

The History

Incredibly, the Delta family of systems has been in use since 1960. Initiated by NASA in the late 1950s, the program is derived from the Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile, which was later modified into a space launch vehicle.

The inaugural Delta launch in 1960 was unsuccessful. But it paved the way for Delta rockets to launch the world’s first Telstar and Intelsat communications satellites, birthing the phrase, “Live, via satellite!” The launch vehicles also carried NASA’s Pioneer and Explorer scientific spacecraft and delivered the first weather observatory, the Tiros and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), to space, revolutionizing weather forecasting.

Over the years, ULA updated Delta rockets to make them larger, more advanced, and more durable. The company installed larger first stage tanks, strap-on solid rocket boosters, and advanced electronics and guidance systems, increased the rocket’s propellant capacity, upgraded the main engine, and developed upper stage and satellite payload systems.

The earliest Delta models stood about 90 feet tall, with a mass of 112,000 pounds. Today, Delta IV Heavy towers 235 feet high and weighs 1.6 million pounds at launch. Liftoff thrust, meanwhile, has skyrocketed from 150,000 pounds in 1960 to 2.1 million pounds.

Later Delta models would help usher in the GPS era by sending constellations of navigation satellites into orbit. Delta II launched four dozen satellites over two decades, and Delta IV launched seven.

Delta II—which made its final flight in 2018—completed eight NASA missions to Mars, including the delivery of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, over the course of 155 flights. It also flew missions to Mercury and visited asteroids, moons, and comets within the solar system.

Delta II has launched probes that “touched the sun,” uncovered exoplanets deep in the Milky Way, and scanned large swaths of the universe using infrared vision. In 2014, it launched the first orbital test flight of NASA’s Orion capsule, which will ferry astronauts around the moon and back during the Artemis II mission in 2025.

By 2002, Boeing had developed Delta IV for the Space Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. That year, the rocket made its debut flight carrying a Eutelsat 33B, its only commercial payload to date. It delivered its first Air Force payload the following year. In 2007, ULA launched the first operational Delta IV Heavy, sending a Space Force Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite into orbit.

The Legacy

Fifteen flights later, Delta IV Heavy is set to become the final Delta rocket to be retired. In addition, ULA has 17 remaining launches for Atlas V, the country’s longest-serving active rocket. Atlas V is cheaper to launch than its counterpart, but it uses Russian-made rather than American-made engines.

Once Delta IV and Atlas V are off the manifest, ULA will transition all launches to Vulcan, which is less expensive than both predecessors. Like previous ULA launch systems, Vulcan is expendable. It was designed primarily for the National Security Space Launch program, as well as for commercial launches such as January’s mission. Customers include Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which placed an order for 38 launches.

ULA will need to compete with the likes of SpaceX, which in 2023 launched more satellites than any other company. SpaceX in 2010 debuted its reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which undercut Delta IV’s price tag. Delta IV, Falcon 9, and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, introduced in 2018, are all under contract with the Pentagon to launch expensive military satellites in the coming years.

In addition, SpaceX has an agreement with the Space Force to take over the vacant Space Launch Complex 6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, which hosted Delta IV launches until 2022. The company may further look to acquire room at Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral, where ULA will launch Friday barring any hiccups.

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United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket launched Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander on January 8 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Hours into the mission, however, a “propulsion anomaly” was reported that cut the flight short of its original target to make a lunar landing attempt on February 23.

“After analysis and recommendations from NASA and the space community, Astrobotic determined the best option for minimizing risk and ensuring responsible disposal of the spacecraft would be to maintain Peregrine’s trajectory toward Earth, where it burned up upon reentry,” NASA said Friday.

The spacecraft made a controlled reentry over the South Pacific 10 days and 13 hours after it launched.

• READ MORE: ‘Propulsion Anomaly’ Reported After Launch of First U.S. Commercial Lunar Lander

“Peregrine Mission One has concluded,” Astrobotic said Friday  in a message on X, formerly Twitter. “We look to the future and our next mission to the moon, Griffin Mission One. All of the hard-earned experience from the past 10 days in space along with the preceding years of designing, building and testing Peregrine will directly inform Griffin and our future missions.”

Despite the failure to land on the moon as planned, NASA said four out of five of its payloads on Peregrine were able to power on in flight and collect data. Those experiments included its Linear Energy Transfer Spectrometer (LETS), Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS), Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS), and Peregrine Ion-Trap Mass Spectrometer (PITMS). Its fifth experiment, a laser retroreflector array, is a passive instrument and would have only been able to operate on the lunar surface.

• READ MORE: First U.S. Moonshot in Decades Will Fall Short—What It Means 

The Peregrine mission was an opportunity to set benchmarks and test instruments in space, said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“The data collected in flight sets the stage for understanding how some of our instruments may behave in the harsh environment of space when some of the duplicates fly on future CLPS flights,” Fox said.

The post First Commercial Lunar Delivery Mission Ends Before Landing appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Peregrine Mission One, an expedition to the moon as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, lifted off Monday morning and appeared to be progressing as planned. But a few hours into the spaceflight, Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic, whose Peregrine lander was destined for the lunar surface, released a series of updates on X (formerly Twitter) that cast doubt on the mission’s aims.

Peregrine—which is carrying a total of 20 payloads, five of them from NASA—was expected to attempt a lunar landing on February 23, but that will no longer be the case. The lander would have become the first built by a private company to land on the moon.

Peregrine lifted off Monday morning at 2:18 a.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard the Vulcan Centaur V, a heavy-lift launch vehicle built by United Launch Alliance and a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

After climbing to about 310 miles, the lander successfully separated from the rocket and powered on. Astrobotic made contact and began receiving telemetry from Peregrine, which is now flying solo toward the moon. In other words, all appeared to be in order.

But in the following hours, Astrobotic issued a string of updates, each more deflating than the last.

The company’s engineers discovered an issue with Peregrine’s propulsion system that is causing a “critical loss of propellant,” which affects the spacecraft’s ability to orient its solar panels toward the sun. Interestingly, the system is not considered novel.

“The Peregrine lander’s propulsion system uses a hypergolic propellant mixture, combining hydrazine fuel and a solution of nitric oxide and nitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer,” wrote Stephen Clark of the website Ars Technica. “This is a tried-and-true architecture because hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide immediately combust upon contact with one another, meaning the propulsion system doesn’t need an ignition source.”

On Monday afternoon, the firm posted the first image from Peregrine in space on X, depicting the warped Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) meant to protect it. Astrobotic called this the “first visual clue” confirming its hunch that the propulsion system is the root of the problem. It later hypothesized that a valve between the spacecraft’s helium pressurant and oxidizer failed to reseal after actuation, though this was not because of the launch.

According to Astrobotic, the propellant leak is causing Peregrine’s altitude control system (ACS) thrusters to burn “well beyond their expected service life cycles” in order to stop the lander from tumbling into space. An update posted Tuesday afternoon announced the final blow.

“Given the propellant leak, there is, unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the moon,” Astrobotic said.

However, the mission was not a complete bust. As of Thursday morning, Peregrine continues to fly toward lunar orbit, and the company said all of the ship’s payloads are communicating or powering up as intended. It also confirmed that a crescent shape in a photo the lander snapped on Tuesday is, indeed, Earth.

Peregrine is carrying scientific payloads from NASA and other space agencies, universities, companies, and individuals. The cargo comes from seven nations, including the first lunar or lunar surface payloads from the Mexican, German, English, and Hungarian space agencies.

The mission was intended to search for water, measure radiation and lunar surface conditions, and prepare NASA for Artemis, a series of launches that will attempt to return American astronauts to the moon as soon as 2025.

But although they shot for the moon and missed, Astrobotic and NASA still have the opportunity to land among the stars, so to speak.

Shooting for the Moon

Outside observers, aware of Peregrine Mission One’s aim to reach the lunar surface, may consider the mission’s result a failure. But that certainly isn’t the view of Astrobotic.

“Obviously, if we don’t achieve that final goal—the soft landing and all of our payloads being activated—there’ll be huge disappointment across the team and our partners and suppliers, who worked tirelessly and tremendously to get to this point,” Andrew Jones, director of landers and spacecraft for Astrobotic, told FLYING before Peregrine took flight. “But we’ve learned so much up to here, and I think we’ve played a huge part in paving the way for our ambitions of making space accessible.”

Landing on the moon is an essential piece of Astrobotic’s mission. The company envisions a democratized space, one where private firms and individuals could easily—and cheaply—move people and goods to the lunar surface and back using Peregrine and its variants. Manifesting that will require proof of concept in the form of a moon landing.

Jones and his team began developing the lander in 2019, using a combination of built-in-house components and parts manufactured by hundreds of suppliers across the U.S. The project was bolstered by $108 million in funding from NASA, which awarded Peregrine the first CLPS contract to put a lander on the moon as a service.

Jones told FLYING Astrobotic conducted “thousands of hours” of analysis on the lander and its mission profile prior to Monday’s launch. These included hundreds of tests of its components, materials, avionics, propulsion, communications, power system, and other features. A full-size structural test model and thousands of lines of code helped prepare the team for potential failure scenarios.

Despite this, the mission did not quite go as planned. Astrobotic is one of 14 vendors eligible to carry NASA payloads to the moon through the CLPS, and it had hoped to be the first to do so.

“To be the first commercial company to land on the moon, it shows that anything’s possible,” Jones told FLYING. “Up until now, it’s always been the purview of governments and large entities to do this. To be able to say that a commercial company like us—that’s not huge, that’s not got millions in the bank—that we can actually do it says a lot for the industry.”

But while Peregrine stopped short of its goal, Jones balked at calling that outcome a failure.

“No matter the outcome of this mission, it’s important that we continue to strive for regular, routine access to the lunar surface,” he said. “There’s always going to be roadblocks. There’s always going to be hiccups along the way. But I think every mission that we do, every lesson that we learn, makes the objective closer and easier to achieve.”

Fortunately for Jones, Astrobotic will have another shot at that objective later this year. The company was also picked by NASA to launch the space agency’s 1-ton VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) to the lunar south pole aboard its Griffin lander. The mission, which will search for water, will cost NASA an estimated $500 million—far more than it invested in the Peregrine mission.

Beyond that, Astrobotic will send a lander tethered to a lunar rover to the moon as early as 2026 to demonstrate LunaGrid-Lite, a proprietary power transmission system. The mission is part of a $35 million NASA tipping point partnership. It will also provide a cargo accommodation system to the Blue Origin National Team, which is developing a lunar lander for humans and large cargo to be used on the Artemis missions.

“I think we’ll have to [establish a presence on the moon], partly because of what we want to do beyond the moon…I think there’s going to be a larger presence on the moon from a scientific [standpoint], as well as just commercial people wanting to experience and live there,” Jones said.

‘Shots on Goal’

NASA researchers were well aware of the risks going into Monday’s launch, the first in its manifest of CLPS missions. CLPS aims to establish a commercial marketplace for science, exploration, and “technology development investigations” on the moon’s surface and in lunar orbit, as well as to expand the lunar economy to support crewed Artemis moon missions.

The CLPS marked a shift in emphasis for the space agency, looping private companies into an industry historically dominated by government agencies and programs. Thomas Zurbuchen, a former associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and key architect of the program, characterized the CLPS strategy as “taking shots on goal.”

But as the saying goes, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. Zurbuchen and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson were among those who applauded Peregrine Mission One, despite it not quite reaching its goal.

Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration for the Science Mission Directorate, added: “Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow. We will use this lesson to propel our efforts to advance science, exploration, and commercial development of the moon.”

To Kearns’ point, the success rate for lunar landings is estimated to be at or below 50 percent, and Astrobotic’s attempt was America’s first in half a century. India in 2019 smashed its Vikram rover into the lunar surface before successfully landing the spacecraft in August, while Russia had a failed moonshot—its first in 47 years—that same month.

NASA researchers had hoped Peregrine’s findings would help them understand how solar radiation affects the lunar surface, as well as provide data to its Lunar-VISE (Lunar Vulkan Imaging and Spectroscopy Explorer), which is expected to arrive at Peregrine’s planned lunar landing site in 2026. Those goals will go unmet, but the agency has plenty more opportunities to learn.

Astrobotic isn’t the only private U.S. company shooting for the moon. In fact, Monday’s launch kicked off one of six planned CLPS missions to the moon in 2024. 

Three of the remaining five journeys will use the Nova-C private lander from Houston-based Intuitive Machines, which could achieve the first commercial soft landing in March should Astrobotic fall short. A fourth will be flown by another Texas-based startup, Firefly Aerospace. Rounding out the manifest is Astrobotic’s VIPER mission. Two additional CLPS missions are scheduled for 2025 and 2026.

NASA officials have tempered expectations for the first batch of landers, given that no private firm has soft landed on the moon. But if delays—which plagued Monday’s launch and others—and unmet expectations become the norm, the future of the Artemis program could be murky.

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Hours into the mission, however, a “propulsion anomaly” potentially threatened the success of the lander reaching the moon’s surface as planned.

United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket launched Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander at 2:18 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

• READ MORE: What Did the U.S. Just Put in Orbit?

“The first CLPS launch has sent payloads on their way to the moon—a giant leap for humanity as we prepare to return to the lunar surface for the first time in over half a century,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “These high-risk missions will not only conduct new science at the moon, but they are supporting a growing commercial space economy while showing the strength of American technology and innovation. We have so much science to learn through CLPS missions that will help us better understand the evolution of our solar system and shape the future of human exploration for the Artemis Generation.”  

The first U.S. commercial robotic launch to the Moon successfully lifted off Jan. 8 on the first flight of @ULALaunch’s #VulcanRocket. @Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission 1 lander is expected to reach the lunar surface in February: https://t.co/csvx73ZqgP pic.twitter.com/N7Mxiqi8GC

— NASA (@NASA) January 8, 2024

Around 50 minutes after launch, the Peregrine lander separated from Vulcan around 500 kilometers (310 miles) above Earth and successfully powered on. 

“After successfully separating from United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander began receiving telemetry via the NASA Deep Space Network,”Astrobotic said in a mission update Monday on X, formerly Twitter. “Astrobotic-built avionics systems, including the primary command and data handling unit, as well as the thermal, propulsion, and power controllers, all powered on and performed as expected. After successful propulsion systems activation, Peregrine entered a safe operational state.

“Unfortunately, an anomaly then occurred, which prevented Astrobotic from achieving a stable sun-pointing orientation,” the post said.

In a second mission update, the company said it believed “that the likely cause of the unstable sun-pointing is a propulsion anomaly that, if proven true, threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the moon. As the team fights to troubleshoot the issue, the spacecraft battery is reaching operationally low levels.”

As Peregrine headed toward a period of known communication outage, the Astrobotic team developed and executed an improvised maneuver to reorient its solar panels toward the sun, it said. By midday, Astrobotic reported that it had successfully regained communications with Peregrine, and that the improvised maneuver had been successful in reorienting its solar array towards the Sun. 

“We are now charging the battery,” it said in the third mission update on X. “The Mission Anomaly Board continues to evaluate the data we’re receiving and is assessing the status of what we believe to be the root of the anomaly: a failure within the propulsion system.”

Vulcan’s Inaugural Launch

The launch—the first certification flight (Cert-1) for ULA’s next generation Vulcan rocket— serves as the first of two flights required for U.S. Space Force certification.

“The second certification mission (Cert-2) is planned to launch in the coming months, followed by a summer launch of the first Vulcan mission to support national security space,” ULA said.

Said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO, in a statement: “Vulcan’s inaugural launch ushers in a new, innovative capability to meet the ever-growing requirements of space launch.As we build on today’s successful launch, the team will continue to work towards our future biweekly launch rate to meet our customers’ manifest requirements, while continuing to develop future Vulcan upgrades including SMART reuse plans for downrange, non-propulsive recovery of Vulcan engines.”

In addition to Astrobotic’s first Peregrine Lunar Lander payload, the Cert-1 mission also included the Celestis Memorial Spaceflights deep space Voyager mission, the Enterprise Flight. Peregrine is carrying 20 payloads from 16 commercial customers representing seven countries.

• READ MORE: Remains of Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols To Launch into Space

“The payloads come from space agencies, universities, companies, and individuals across the globe,” Astrobotic said. “This includes the first lunar surface payloads from the Mexican and German space agencies, and the first lunar payloads from the countries of the United Kingdom, Hungary, and Seychelles. One of the payloads, DHL MoonBox, contains mementos and messages from over 100,000 individuals around the world.”

When Peregrine attempts to land on the moon on February 23, it will be the first U.S. lander to do so in more than 50 years.

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The U.S. Space Force is advancing investment in next-generation rocket development, awarding $87.5 million in contracts to Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance.

The awards announced this week were made in response to a request for prototype proposals put forth by USSF in May for rocket engine testing and upper stage resiliency enhancements, underscoring a new era of national defense with merging commercial space and military interests.

The contract awards were made by USSF Space Systems Command’s Launch Enterprise through a partnership with the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), an organization created to bridge the gap between the military, academia, and commercial space businesses.

The awards include:

• $24.35 million to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture for cryogenic fluid management on the New Glenn rocket’s second stage
• $24.35 million to Rocket Lab to develop the Neutron rocket’s upper stage
• $14.47 million to SpaceX for rapid throttling and restart testing of the Raptor rocket engine, which is destined for use on SpaceX’s Starship rocket, liquid methane specification development and testing; and combustion stability analysis and testing.
• $24.35 million to United Launch Alliance for uplink command and control for the Centaur V upper stage, which will be used with ULA’s Vulcan rocket.

Work on the prototype projects is expected to be complete by 2023.

The award is “a vote of confidence” acknowledging the utility of commercial industry in the national security arena, one recipient said Monday.

“We’re dedicated to building a next-generation rocket that will transform space access for constellations through to the most critical missions in support of national security, and it’s an honor to be partnering with the U.S. Space Force to develop Neutron,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in a statement.

“This award is a vote of confidence in Neutron and our ability to deliver a low-cost, responsive, dedicated launch for the U.S. Government. We’ve built a trusted launch system with Electron, and we’ll do it again with Neutron to continue providing unfettered access to space with our new heavier-lift vehicle.”

USSF was authorized as a stand-alone service branch in December 2019 and is focused on utilizing innovation and speed to counter emerging threats.

With the growth of commercial space tourism and satellite dependence, space has gone from a benign environment to a contested one, a USSF official told attendees of the Air Space Cyber Conference last week.

“We don’t have decades. We’re in a race with some serious adversaries that mean to deny us those advantages that we get in space,” Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, USSF deputy chief of space operations, said. “Notably, it’s clear that our strategic international competitors have been investing heavily to both take advantage of space militarily, but more importantly, investing heavily to deny others the ability to use space capabilities.”

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